The Judas Kiss
Rupert Everett and Freddie Fox star in a rare revival of David Hare’s The Judas Kiss, a powerful play about Oscar Wilde’s fall from grace.
Focusing on two critical moments, the eve of his arrest and one night after his release from two years imprisonment, The Judas Kiss speculates on the consequences of his self-destructive fatalism, betrayal and love without trust.
Neil Armfield will direct Everett and Fox in the production. Everett is best known for his film roles in screen adaptations of Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband, while Fox was most recently seen on stage in Hay Fever at the Noël Coward theatre and has also appeared at the Old Vic theatre in A Flea In Her Ear and Cause Célèbre.
Hare’s most recent stage play South Downs recently played alongside Terence Rattigan’s The Browning Version at the Harold Pinter theatre.
Cast & Crew
Cast
| Arthur Wellesley | Ben Hardy |
|---|---|
| Galileo Masconi | Tom Colley |
| Lord Alfred Douglas | Freddie Fox |
| Oscar Wilde | Rupert Everett |
| Phoebe Cane | Kirsty Oswald |
| Robert Ross | Cal Macaninch |
| Sandy Moffat | Alister Cameron |
Crew | |
| Author | David Hare |
| Director | Neil Armfield |
| Lighting Designer | Rick Fisher |
| Sound | Paul Groothuis |
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Play description
The Judas Kiss is a 1998 British play by David Hare, about Oscar Wilde’s scandal and disgrace at the hands of his young lover Bosie (Lord Alfred Douglas).
Act 1: London, 1895
Oscar Wilde’s spoiled and impetuous young lover Bosie has succeeded in instigating Wilde to sue Bosie’s father in court for insulting him as a “sodomite”. The loss of the suit opens the way for Wilde being criminally indicted for gross indecency. Wilde has tacit government permission to flee the country to avoid arrest, trial, and imprisonment, but the childish Bosie insists that he stay and defend their honour.
Act 2: Italy, 1897
Wilde is doing the one thing his friends wanted him to avoid, namely reuniting with the unbelievably selfish Bosie after his difficult two-year incarceration. Wilde, a broken man, is holed up in exile from the UK in a rat-infested hotel in Naples.
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